


Shamus Powers Activate!

by Brumeier



Category: The Three Investigators | Die drei ??? - Various Authors, The Trixie Belden Mysteries - Julie Campbell Tatham & Kathryn Kenny
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, F/M, First Meetings, It's For a Case
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:08:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21617347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: Trixie's on a case, and her very specific super powers not only lead her to some vital evidence, but also to a potential partner who could change everything.
Relationships: Trixie Belden/Jupiter Jones | Justus Jonas
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6
Collections: What If? AU Challenge





	Shamus Powers Activate!

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Whatif_AU Superhero challenge

Trixie was in line at the bakery, her eye on a particularly appealing apple crumble cupcake, when a buzzing tingle traveled down her arms and into her fingertips. She lifted her gaze from the display case and looked around the shop with a sharp gaze.

“Next! Ma’am? You’re next.”

“Sorry. I’ll be back,” Trixie promised the cupcake before she popped out of line and made her way to the exit. 

The tingle was getting stronger. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, waiting for a direction to make itself known. Trixie blocked out the sounds of city traffic and the chattering of people on the street, blocked out the smell of pretzels from the vendor on the corner.

_East Street._

Trixie took off down the sidewalk at a brisk pace, keeping a lookout for whatever had set her super senses tingling. She found it at the mouth of an alley off East Street sitting on top of a pile of garbage.

“I’ll take that.”

The shoebox was snatched away right under Trixie’s nose by a guy who didn’t look much older than she was. He was sturdily built, his dark hair hanging in his eyes, and he was wearing one of those bowling shirts with a name stitched on the front: _Butch_.

“Hey! That’s mine!”

Butch held it up over her head, and Trixie wished, not for the first time, that she had the power of flight. Or at least longer arms.

“I need it for my case,” Butch said.

“I need it for _my_ case.”

Trixie was on the trail of a blackmailer, and if her senses were right – and they always were – that shoebox held some vital bit of evidence.

“If that’s true,” Butch said. “I can deduce we’re both working the same case. My client is being –”

“Blackmailed,” Trixie interrupted. “So is mine. And I’m keen to be the one to bring this jerk to justice, so if you don’t mind…” 

She held out her hand, but Butch continued to maintain possession of the shoebox.

“How did you find this?” he asked. “The location is completely random.”

“Then you must know the identity of the blackmailer.” Trixie could make her own deductions, thank you very much. “Otherwise how would you know it’s random? They could live on this street.”

“I suspect you found this shoebox much the same way I know the blackmailer has no reason to be in this part of town,” Butch said thoughtfully. “Curious.”

The shoebox seemed suddenly less important than the man holding it. Trixie had met her fair share of Supers, most of which had so-called Major Powers: flight, speed, strength, telekinesis, time travel. Trixie’s ability to suss out clues relevant to her cases was mostly seen as laughable. To find someone else with a similar power was pretty  
amazing.

“Come with me,” she said, and walked away fully expecting Butch to follow. Which he did, shoebox tucked under one arm.

Trixie’s brother Mart, who had been born with what he called loquaciousness but no actual superpowers, would’ve taken her to task for going off with a complete stranger. _You never look before you leap_ , he often bemoaned. It was Trixie’s experience that nothing could be gained by caution.

She led Butch to a greasy spoon diner, one of her favorite places to get a BLT and loaded fries.

“Don’t they have a dishwasher?” Butch asked, wrinkling his nose at the spots on his fork.

“Never mind that.” Trixie leaned forward, elbows on the table. They were sitting in a booth in the back, very discreet. “Tell me what you can do.”

“Not the kind of thing I usually share with strangers,” Butch replied. He kept one hand on the shoebox, which was beside him on the seat.

“Trixie Belden, formerly of Sleepyside-on-Hudson. Private detective, dog lover, and sister to three brothers. I enjoy long walks in the park, horseback riding, and fruity rum drinks. Now you.”

Butch looked like he was trying to hide how amused he was. “Jupiter Jones, formerly of Rocky Beach, California. Private detective, not real fond of animals, no siblings. I enjoy research, reading, and antiques.”

“Jupiter Jones? Is that your Super name?” It had to be. No-one would name their kid Jupiter. It was perfectly good for a horse, though.

Butch didn’t look amused anymore. “It’s my actual name, thank you. In Roman mythology, Jupiter was a god. _The_ god, in point of fact.”

“No ego problem here, I can see,” Trixie said. “Do your friends call you Butch?”

“Why would anyone call me that?”

Trixie pointed to the name stitched on his shirt.

“Oh. I picked this up in a thrift shop.”

“And you don’t think it’s weird to walk around wearing someone else’s name?”

Butch-Jupiter frowned. “Obviously I don’t, or I wouldn’t. Is this the level of your investigative skill? Have you ever closed a case?”

That got Trixie’s hackles up. She was a good detective, powers or no powers, and she wasn’t going to let anyone tell her otherwise. Especially not the weirdly-named, cute-but-rude guy sitting across from her.

“I close _all_ my cases, and I don’t need my super shamus powers to do it, either.”

“Super shamus?” Butch-Jupiter’s mouth twitched at the corners.

“Yes, shamus. My brother calls me that, and also ‘gumshoe’, ‘sleuth’, and ‘flatfoot’. He’s a walking dictionary.”

“Thesaurus.”

“Whatever. The point is, I’m good at what I do. So hand over that shoebox, because I have a client that needs to be helped.”

The waitress came then with their food, which was a little awkward, and Trixie stopped talking until she was gone.

“I get it if you don’t want to share your powers. That’s fine. But I made promises to my client.”

“So did I.”

Trixie sighed. Jupiter was going to be a tough nut to crack. But that was fine. She had three brothers; she wasn’t through yet.

“Well, at least stay and eat your lunch. On me.”

She batted her eyelashes at Jupiter, who immediately looked flustered and turned his full attention on his lunch. Trixie masked her pleased grin with her sandwich. It was clear, once Jupiter started eating, how much he enjoyed the food. The perfect distraction.

Trixie carefully stretched her leg out, doing her best not to brush against Jupiter’s. She could touch the opposite seat with the toe of her shoe, but unfortunately her legs were as short as her arms. She tried to surreptitiously slouch and give herself a few more inches, but just when she was sure she’d nudged against the shoebox, Jupiter snatched it off the seat and glared at her.

“Were you really just trying to grab this with your _feet_?”

“Foot. Look, can’t we work this out? We can help both our clients with the contents of that box. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.”

Jupiter studied her for a long moment. “It’s good to know you can be logical.”

“I’m the very picture of logic,” Trixie agreed amiably. She pushed her plate aside to make room for the shoebox. “I’m also the picture of curiosity. You still haven’t told me about your power.”

“And you still haven’t overwhelmed me with your discretion.”

Trixie rolled her eyes and reached for the box, which Jupiter was carefully setting down on the table. In the process, she knocked her hand into his.

Whoa.

That familiar tingling sensation filled her whole body in an alarming, but not completely unpleasant, way. A name flashed before her mind’s eye – _Walter Hendry_ – and she knew with certainty that it was the name of the blackmailer.

Trixie stared wide-eyed at Jupiter, their hands still touching on the box, and he stared right back at her looking equally surprised.

“I know who he is,” Trixie said.

“I know where to find him,” Jupiter replied.

And the contents of the box would be enough to get him arrested, Trixie was certain of that too.

“Shamus powers,” Jupiter muttered. 

“ _Super_ shamus powers,” Trixie corrected with a grin. “Gleeps! I never expected this could happen! Just think of the cases we could solve if we worked together!”

“Let’s not get carried away.” Jupiter pulled his hand back, but his cheeks were flushed. He looked almost bashful.

Trixie was a sucker for bashful.

“Okay. First things first.” Trixie ticked them off on her fingers. “We find Walter – that’s the blackmailer – and get him taken care of. Then we settle up with our clients. After that, you and I need to sit down and have a real talk, because I think our powers combined could be amazing.”

“Do you always just jump into things like this?”

“I’m a very spontaneous person.” Foolhardy, Mart would say. Luckily for Trixie, Mart was off in Montana wrangling cows. “What do you say, Jupiter Jones? Shall we join forces against the jerks and criminals of the world?”

“I say…I’m open to further discussion.”

“Good enough for me! Let’s go get our man!”

Trixie tossed enough money on the table to cover the meal and the tip and left it to Jupiter to bring along the shoebox.  
“I have one question,” Jupiter said as he followed Trixie out of the diner.

“Just one?”

“Gleeps. What does that mean?”

Trixie laughed. It was shaping up to be one heck of a day!

**Author's Note:**

>  **AN:** When I was pondering this AU challenge, I wanted to forgo the characters that could easily be turned into superheroes (like Rodney from SGA or Steve from H50) and go with someone a little more unexpected. Which turned out to be Trixie Belden, who I gave a spidey sense of sorts that fit right in with her life’s goal to be a super sleuth. Silly maybe, but I had fun with it!


End file.
